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Chinese trucks 'entering India'? What the viral border videos really show

Two posts on X claiming Chinese vehicles had crossed into India and a general had admitted losing territory drew more than a million views. One shows legal trade trucks at Nathu La; the other is a deepfake. The tension they exploit is real.

LSN World News · 27 October 2026

Chinese trucks 'entering India'? What the viral border videos really show

<p><em>Special Reporting from LSN News, adapted from today's Asia Behind the Headlines episode. <a href="https://youtu.be/d3GULAdMjVw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch the video on YouTube.</a></em></p>

<p>More than a million views. That is how far just two posts on X, both published on Monday, 26 October, had travelled by Tuesday morning. One showed Chinese vehicles, captioned in Hindi as China's vehicles crossing the border into India, with a jibe that the mainstream media would never show it. The other showed an Indian general supposedly admitting that China had seized parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Both are false. Here is what the record shows.</p>

<h2>Trade trucks, not an incursion</h2>

<p>According to the Indian Army's official fact-check account, the vehicles in the first clip are JAC-branded Chinese commercial trucks at Nathu La in Sikkim, a designated India-China border trade point. Border trade through the pass resumed on 1 August 2026, after a suspension of more than six years, according to the Government of Sikkim and All India Radio.</p>

<p>The Army put it plainly: "The movement of commercial vehicles at an authorised border trade route is being misrepresented as evidence of a Chinese military intrusion." It added that trade at Nathu La "operates under established bilateral agreements, designated trading facilities and regulated procedures."</p>

<p>The fact-check account went further. It listed twelve handles that it said had circulated the same content between 8.26am and 12.56pm on 26 October, a window of four and a half hours, and labelled the episode "Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour". Its summary of the method: Chinese commercial vehicles, plus the omission of the authorised trade context, plus a false narrative of unauthorised entry, plus coordinated posting.</p>

<h2>A deepfake general and a week of recycled clips</h2>

<p>The second clip is a deepfake. The Army says the original footage comes from a press briefing given by then Maj Gen Girish Kalia in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir, on 27 October 2023, about infiltration attempts across the Line of Control. He made no claims about Arunachal Pradesh. The fact-checking site BOOM reached the same conclusion, tracing the footage to October 2023.</p>

<p>These were not isolated cases. India Today lists seven misleading border claims fact-checked by the Army between 24 and 26 October. They include a counter-terrorism mock drill filmed in Karnataka that was passed off as Chinese soldiers frisking Indian troops in Arunachal, and a second doctored video of a retired Army commander.</p>

<h2>Real tension, fake footage</h2>

<p>The fakes work because the tension underneath them is real. On Thursday, 22 October, the director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Shatrujeet Kapur, said: "In the past few-days, a situation arose where face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues," The Hindu reported. Government sources told the paper that a stand-off near Taksing in Upper Subansiri district dates back to late July, with Chinese troops reportedly camped inside India's perception of the Line of Actual Control.</p>

<p>Nor is this only India's problem. On 21 October, Reuters reported that Taiwan's National Security Bureau said China had spread more than 2.5 million pieces of disputed or false online information targeting Taiwan in the first nine months of 2026, up about 48% on a year earlier, ahead of local elections in November. Beijing has previously denied interfering in Taiwanese elections or spreading disinformation.</p>

<p>Who is behind the latest wave aimed at Indian audiences is not established. India Today noted that "it is not yet known" whether the posts are part of a coordinated campaign directed by Beijing, while the Army has described some other recent posts as coming from Pakistan-linked accounts. It has not attributed the Nathu La posts to any state.</p>

<p>Who is behind this wave is not proven. But the method is clear: take a real tension, add recycled or manipulated footage, and move fast, before the context can catch up. The Army's own advice is the right one for anyone scrolling past the next clip: check the place, the date and the source before you share.</p>

<p><em>This report was also presented on video by an AI avatar. The reporting is by the LSN News desk.</em></p>

<h2>Sources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://x.com/MythbusterXX/status/2114650891227672665" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Army Fact Check (@MythbusterXX) on X, 26 Oct 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/misleading-narrative-indian-army-debunks-claims-of-chinese-intrusion-at-sikkims-nathu-la-101793011730243.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hindustan Times, 26 Oct 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.republicworld.com/india/coordinated-inauthentic-behaviour-exposed-army-fact-checks-claims-of-chinese-vehicles-unauthorised-entry-into-india-2026-10-26-139701" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republic World, 26 Oct 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.sikkim.gov.in/media/news-announcement/news-info?name=Indo-China+Border+Trade+via+Nathula+Reopens+After+Six+Years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Government of Sikkim (IPR), 1 Aug 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://newsonair.gov.in/india-china-border-trade-through-nathu-la-resumes-after-six-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">All India Radio News, 1 Aug 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/arunachal-pradesh-news-line-of-actual-control-india-china-standoff-2026-social-media-disinformation-campaigns-itspc-3025159-2026-10-27" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India Today, 27 Oct 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/face-off-with-china-continues-at-multiple-locations-along-arunachal-border-itbp-d-g/article71612994.ece" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hindu, 22 Oct 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/world-news/taiwan-security-agency-flags-rise-in-chinese-disinformation-ahead-of-local-elections-4961506" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters, 21 Oct 2026 (via Investing.com)</a></li>

</ul>